1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a method and an x-ray device to assist in the reduction of the dose of x-ray radiation applied to a patient in the acquisition of at least one x-ray projection of the patient. The invention also concerns a non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium encoded with programming instructions for implementing such a method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In medical technology using imaging with x-ray radiation, for example in computed tomography, it is always sought to apply an optimally low dose of x-ray radiation to the patient to generate one or more images of tissue of the patient. However, a defined image quality must also be achieved in order to be able to answer clinical question at issue using the generated image or images, which requires a minimum dose.
In order to assist a user (of a computed tomography apparatus, for example) in the examination of defined tissue of a patient or in the acquisition of x-ray projections and the subsequent reconstruction of images of the defined tissue of the patient, known apparatuses have selectable scan protocols that include specific setting parameters for the respective examination or the respective acquisition of x-ray projections. These settings include the tube voltage, the tube current, the slice collimation etc. for the respective computer tomography apparatus. Measures to reduce the dose of x-ray radiation to be applied to the patient during the acquisition of x-ray projections are also included in the scan protocols. The scan protocols of a computed tomography apparatus that are included at the factory or by the manufacture, however, are only rarely adapted by the users of the computer tomography apparatuses to their own requirements and ideas, in particular with regard to the image quality.
Manufacturers of x-ray devices (such as computed tomography apparatuses) also normally introduce new or improved measures for dose reduction with each new version of apparatus type. Iterative reconstruction is an example of such a measure. If a user of the computed tomography apparatus receives a new apparatus, or even just a software version including new protocols, even though all protocols installed by the manufacturer are provided with all new or improved measures for dose reduction, it is most often technically impossible to automatically provide the existing protocols, that have already (previously) been adapted by the user to his own requirements (which protocols the user would like to continue to use) with the new or improved measures for dose reduction. Therefore the risk exists that the user at least occasionally makes no use of the new or improved measures for dose reduction, either due to a lack of knowledge as to how to manually embody them in the user's previously adapted protocols, or due to the lack of an automated adaptation of the protocols that user has previously adapted to his or her requirements before the software update.